Preparing for Marriage and Family

Table of Contents:

Urantian Teachings: Taught by two parents in the home.
Continual process, integral part of family life, vary methods and materials
fill needs of differing ability and interest levels of children.
First Priority: Need for Parents' Guide and Parents' Training Courses.
Next Needs: Supplementary materials for pre-school children (ages 2-5)
using multi-media (music, art, to help build concepts and vocabulary).

"[Parenthood] entails the supreme responsibility
of human existence."
"[New mores are emerging among which is] the new role of religion--the
teaching that parental experience is essential, the idea of procreating
cosmic citizens, . . . giving sons to the Father."

"[The child] is wholly dependent on the earthly
father for his first ideas of the heavenly Father."
(NOTE: The great significance of Jesus' bestowal life here, in which more
than half the time was served as an earthly father to eight brothers and
sisters, "almost a score of years." P. 1389:5 By comparison,
four years were spent with the apostles, and the remaining fourteen were
the childhood years.)

Bloom's studies and others indicate that crucial years
are from birth to age five, and growth of 50% of intelligence by age five
and 80% by age eight.
Types of motivation for learning used throughout universe career.

Province of the home and duty of parents.
Importance of home life on a neighboring planet.

Preparing for Marriage
and Family
Annotated Bibliography of Selected References
From The Urantia Book

I. Introduction

This Annotated Bibliography has been prepared with far more detail than
usual, in an effort to save parents' time in looking up these references.
However, even more details can be found by checking the listed pages on
the left margin of each page.

In beginning the preparation of children's materials it was found imperative
to first provide a background for the parents. This is in answer to many
requests from parents. By understanding the philosophy presented in The
Urantia Book regarding the place of children in the home and in society,
parents will be better able to present The Urantia Book teachings
to their children. This will also provide information about the parents'
role and responsibilities and methods of teaching the spiritual truths
to their children.

The Urantia Book was given to us with one stated purpose of improving
life on this planet, and another, of enhancement of personal religious
experience both of which could begin to be implemented at once by parents
in the home.

In Paper 73, we are told that the Garden of Eden was established to
upstep life on this planet. Much of the home life and training of children
was copied from that of Jerusem and was above even today's civilized world.

All of the quotations are included with the intent of providing specific
guides to be used by parents in the home. They were given to us for the
purposes stated:

820:2

"The recital of the affairs of a neighboring planet is made by
special permission with the intent of advancing civilization and augmenting
governmental evolution on Urantia."

1328#7

Immanuel's Instructions to Jesus: "In all that you may perform
on the world of your bestowal, bear constantly in mind that you are living
a life for the instruction and edification of all your universe . . . .
You are to live such a life for the spiritual inspiration of every human
and superhuman intelligence."

See listed pages for more information

II. The Essential Experiences of
Parenthood

616.2

"Parents; those who have borne and reared children, are better
able to understand why Michael, a Creator-father, might be slow to condemn
and destroy his own Sons. Jesus' story of the prodigal son well illustrates
how a loving father can long wait for the repentance of an erring child."

Problems of the Lucifer Rebellion

811:2

(Recommended for Urantian Parents) "Attendance of parents, both
fathers and mothers, at the parental schools of child culture is compulsory.
Even the agriculturists who reside in small country settlements carry on
this work by correspondence, going to the nearby centers for oral instruction
once in ten days--every two weeks, for they maintain a five-day week."

811:3

"The average number of children in each family is five, and they
are under the full control of their parents or, in the case of demise of
one or both, under that of the guardians designated by the parental courts.
It is considered a great honor for any family to be awarded the guardianship
of a full orphan. Competitive examinations are held among parents, and
the orphan is awarded to the home of those displaying the best parental
qualifications."

(Note: Wish we had a copy of those tests.)
Government on a Neighboring Planet

939:6

"New mores are emerging designed to stabilize the marriage-home
institution:

The new role of religion - the teaching that parental experience is
essential, the idea of procreating cosmic citizens, the enlarged understanding
of the privilege of procreation--giving sons to the Father."

Marriage and Family Life

940:4

"Love of offspring is almost universal and is of distinct survival
value . . . .The animals love their children; man-civilized man--loves
his children's children. The higher the civilization, the greater the joy
of parents in the children's advancement and success; thus the new and
higher realization of name pride comes into existence."

Marriage and Family Life

941:3

"The advancing ideals of family life are leading to the concept
that bringing a child into the world, instead of conferring certain parental
rights, entails the supreme responsibility of human existence."

Marriage and Family Life

941:4

"Civilization regards the parents as assuming all the duties,
the child as having all the rights. Respect of the child for his parents
arises, not in knowledge of the obligation implied in parental procreation,
but naturally grows as a result of the care, training and affection which
are lovingly displayed in assisting the child to win the battle of life.
The true parent is engaged in a continuous service-ministry which the wise
child comes to recognize and appreciate."

Marriage and Family Life

1365:4

When Jesus was in his eighth year, Nahor, one of the teachers of the
Jerusalem academy of the rabbis came to Nazareth to observe Jesus. Nahor
asked Mary and Joseph to take Jesus back with him to Jerusalem to be educated
at the Jewish center of culture. Mary rather wished to do this but Joseph
was very hesitant. Nahor then requested permission to lay the whole matter
before Jesus. Jesus talked it over with Jacob, the stone mason as well
as Joseph and Mary. Then he reported that he had talked it over with his
Father in heaven and though he was not perfectly sure of the answer he
rather felt he should remain at home with his parents for: "They who
love me so much should be able to do more for me and guide me more safely
than strangers who can only view my body and observe my mind but can hardly
truly know me. They all marveled, and Nahor went his way, back to Jerusalem."

Early Childhood of Jesus

1575:3

"A loving parent experiences little difficulty in forgiving his
child, even many times. And in an unspoiled child the urge to relieve suffering
is natural, Children are normally kind and sympathetic when old enough
to appreciate actual conditions."

Ordination of the Twelve

1589:5

Jesus said, "It is not wise for the host to participate in the
family troubles of his guests; a wise parent never takes sides in the petty
quarrels of his own children."

Ordination of the Twelve

1675:5

"Intelligent children do not fear their father in order that they
may receive good gifts from his hand; but having already received the abundance
of good things bestowed by the dictates of the father's affection for his
sons and daughters, these much loved children are led to love their father
in responsive recognition and appreciation of such munificent beneficence.
The goodness of God leads to repentance; the beneficence of God leads to
service; the mercy of God leads to salvation; while the love of God leads
to intelligent and freehearted worship."

Second Preaching Tour

1839:5

Jesus said: "This same Father has directed the creation of male
and female, and it is the divine will that men and women should find their
highest service and consequent joy in the establishment of homes for the
reception and training of children, in the creation of whom these parents
become co- partners with the Makers of heaven and earth."

Visit to Philadelphia

1898:3

Jesus answered: "My brethren, you err in your opinions because
you do not comprehend the nature of those intimate and loving relations
between the creature and the Creator, between man and God. You fail to
grasp that understanding sympathy which the wise parent entertains for
his immature and sometimes erring child. It is indeed doubtful whether
intelligent and affectionate parents are ever called upon to forgive an
average and normal child. prevent all those estrangements which later necessitate
the readjustment of repentance by the child with forgiveness by the parent."

Tuesday in the Temple

1898:4

"A part of every father lives in the child. The father enjoys
priority and superiority of understanding in all matters connected with
the child-parent relationship. The parent is able to view the immaturity
of the child in the light of the more advanced parental maturity, the riper
experience of the older partner. With the earthly child and the heavenly
Father, the divine parent possesses infinity and divinity of sympathy and
capacity for loving understanding. Divine forgiveness is inevitable; it
is inherent and inalienable in God's infinite understanding, in his perfect
knowledge of all that concerns the mistaken judgment and erroneous choosing
of the child. Divine justice is so eternally fair that it unfailingly embodies
understanding mercy."

Tuesday in the Temple

1898:5

"When a wise man understands the inner impulses of his fellows,
he will love them. And when you love your brother, you have already forgiven
him. This capacity to understand man's nature and forgive his apparent
wrongdoing is Godlike. If you are wise parents, this is the way you will
love and under- stand your children, even forgive them when transient misunderstanding
has apparently separated you. The child, being immature and lacking in
the fuller understanding of the depth of the child-father relationship,
must frequently feel a sense of guilty separation from a father's full
approval, but the true father is never conscious of any such separation.
Sin is an experience of creature consciousness; it is not a part of God's
consciousness."

Tuesday in the Temple

1898:6

"Your inability or unwillingness to forgive your fellows is the
measure of your immaturity, your failure to attain adult sympathy, understanding,
and love. You hold grudges and nurse vengefulness in direct proportion
to your ignorance of the inner nature and true longings of your children
and your fellow beings. Love is the outworking of the divine and inner
urge of life. It is founded on understanding, nurtured by unselfish service,
and perfected in wisdom."

Tuesday in the Temple

2089:2

"Faith was not immature and credulous like that of a child, but
in many ways it did resemble the unsuspecting trust of a child mind. Jesus
trusted God much as a child trusts a parent. He had a profound confidence
in the uni- verse--just such a trust as the child has in its parental environment.
Jesus' wholehearted faith in the fundamental goodness of the universe very
much resembled the child's trust in the security of its earthly surroundings.
He depended on the heavenly Father as a child leans upon its earthly parent,
and his fervent faith never for one moment doubted the certainty of the
heavenly Father's overcare."

The Faith of Jesus

III. The Family and Home

515:7,
515:4,
515:2

"The Material Sons and Daughters, together with their children,
present an engaging spectacle which never fails to arouse the curiosity
and intrigue the attention of all ascending mortals . . . . These Material
Sons and Daughters are the permanent inhabitants of Jerusem and its associated
worlds. They occupy vast estates on Jerusem and participate liberally in
the local management of the capital sphere." "These Material
Sons are the high- est type of sex-reproducing beings to be found on the
training spheres of the evolving universes. And they are really material;
even the Planetary Adams and Eves are plainly visible to the mortal races
of the inhabited worlds."

Superb families!

Local System Administration

532:2

"Children of pre-Adjuster ages are cared for in families of five,
ranging in ages from one year and under up to approximately five years."

Seven Mansion Worlds

532:4

"The Adjuster-indwelt children and youths on the finaliter world
are also reared in families of five, ranging in ages from six to fourteen."

Seven Mansion Worlds

(Note) Never does The Urantia Book states the average number
of children a family on Urantia should have. We have not yet begun the
biologic renovation of racial stocks and selective elimination of inferior
human strains. This must come first.

618:7,
619:1

If an affectionate father of a large family chooses to show mercy to
one of his children guilty of grievous wrongdoing, it may well be that
the extension of mercy to this misbehaving child will work a temporary
hardship upon all the other and well-behaved children. Such eventualities
are inevitable; such a risk is inseparable from the reality situation of
having a loving parent and of being a member of a family group. Each member
of the family profits by the righteous conduct of every other member; likewise
must each member suffer the immediate time-consequences of the misconduct
of every other member."

Problems of Lucifer Rebellion

625:6

"On these superb worlds the childbearing period is not greatly
prolonged. It is not best for too many years to intervene between the ages
of a family of children. When close together in age, children are able
to contribute much more to their mutual training. And on these worlds they
are magnificently trained by the competitive systems of keen striving in
the advanced domains and divisions of diverse achievement in the mastery
of truth, beauty, and goodness."

Spheres of Light and Life

630:7

"By now the population has become stationary in numbers. Reproduction
is regulated in accordance with planetary requirements and innate hereditary
endowments: The mortals on a planet during this age are divided into from
five to ten groups, and the lower groups are permitted to produce only
one half as many children as the higher. The continued improvement of such
a magnificent race throughout the era of light and life is largely a matter
of the selective reproduction of those racial strains which exhibit superior
qualities of a social, philosophic, cosmic, and spiritual nature."

Spheres of Light and Life

811:1,
811:4,
811:5

In this continent group dwellings for families have been outlawed.
"These people regard the home as the basic institution of their civilization.
It is expected that the most valuable part of a child's education and character
training will be secured from his parents and at home, and fathers devote
almost as much attention to child culture as do mothers." All sex
instruction and religious instruction are administered in the home by parents
or legal guardians.

Government on a Neighboring Planet

848:7

"The observation of Abel's conduct establishes the value of environment
and education as factors in character development. Abel had an ideal inheritance,
and heredity lies at the bottom of all character: but the influence of
an inferior environment virtually neutralized this magnificent inheritance
Abel, especially during his younger years, was greatly influenced by his
unfavorable surroundings. He would have become an entirely different person
had he lived to be 25 or 30; his superb inheritance would then have shown
itself. While a good environment cannot contribute much toward really over-
coming the character handicaps of a base heredity, a bad environment can
very effectively spoil an excellent inheritance, at least during the younger
years of life. Good social environment and proper education are indispensable
soil for getting the most out of a good inheritance."

The Second Garden

913:1

"Marriage is enduring; it is not inherent in biologic evolution,
but it is the basis of all social evolution and is therefore certain of
continued existence in some form. Marriage has given mankind the home,
and the home is the crowning glory of the whole long and arduous evolutionary
struggle."

The Evolution of Marriage

913:2,
913:3

"While religious, social, and educational institutions are all
essential to the survival of cultural civilization, the family is the master
civilizer. A child learns most of the essentials of life from his family
and the neighbors . . . . The family as an educational institution must
be maintained."

The Evolution of Marriage

913:6

"The regulation of sex in relation to marriage indicates:

The relative progress of civilization. Civilization has increasingly
demanded that sex be gratified in useful channels and in accordance with
the mores."

The Evolution of Marriage

914:6

"No human emotion or impulse, when unbridled and overindulged,
can produce so much harm and sorrow as this powerful sex urge. Intelligent
submission of this impulse to the regulations of society is the supreme
test of the actuality of any civilization. Self-control, more and more
self-control, is the ever-increasing demand of advancing mankind. Secrecy,
insincerity, and hypocrisy may obscure sex problems, but they do not provide
solutions, nor do they advance ethics."

The Evolution of Marriage

927:8,
928:1,2

"Monogamy is not necessarily biologic or natural, but it is indispensable
to the immediate maintenance and further development of social civilization.
It contributes to a delicacy of sentiment, a refinement of moral character,
and a spiritual growth which are utterly impossible in polygamy. A woman
never can be an ideal mother when she is all the while compelled to engage
in rivalry for her husband's affections.
Pair marriage favors and fosters that intimate understanding and effective
co-operation which is best for parental happiness, child welfare, and social
efficiency. Marriage, which began in crude coercion, is gradually evolving
into a magnificent institution of self-culture, self-control, self- expression,
and self-perpetuation."

The Marriage Institution

928:8

"The real test of marriage, all down through the ages, has been
that continuous intimacy which is inescapable in all family life. Two pampered
and spoiled youths, educated to expect every indulgence and full gratification
of vanity and ego, can hardly hope to make a great success of marriage
and home building--a life-long partnership of self-effacement, compromise,
devotion, and unselfish dedication to child culture."

The Marriage Institution

929:2

"And in so far as the social group falls short of providing marriage
preparation for youths, to that extent must divorce function as the social
safety valve which prevents still worse situations during the ages of the
rapid growth of the evolving mores . . . . The great inconsistency of modern
society is to exalt love and to idealize marriage while disapproving of
the fullest examination of both."

The Marriage Institution

930:1

"Nevertheless, there is an ideal of marriage on the spheres on
high. On the capital of each local system the Material Sons and Daughters
of God do portray the height of the ideals of the union of man and woman
in the bonds of marriage and for the purpose of procreating and rearing
offspring. After all, the ideal mortal marriage is humanly sacred."

The Marriage Institution

930:4

"In concept, at least, the family is becoming a loyal partnership
for rearing offspring, accompanied by sexual fidelity." Marriage "is
the evolving social partnership of a man and a woman, existing and functioning
under the current mores, restricted by the taboos, and enforced by the
laws and regulations of society."

The Marriage Institution

931:1

"In later times evolving love is beginning to justify and glorify
marriage as the ancestor and creator of civilization's most useful and
sublime institution, the home. And home building should be the center and
essence of all educational effort."

Marriage and Family Life

939:3

"Marriage is the mother of all human institutions, for it leads
directly to home founding and home maintenance, which is the structural
basis of society. The family is vitally linked to the mechanism of self-maintenance;
it is the sole hope of race perpetuation under the mores of civilization,
while at the same time it most effectively provides certain highly satisfactory
forms of self-gratification. The family is man's greatest purely human
achievement, combining as it does the evolution of the biologic relations
of male and female with the social relations of husband and wife."

Marriage and Family Life

939:4

"As are the families of the race or nation, so is its society.
If the families are good, the society is likewise good. The great cultural
stability of the Jewish and of the Chinese peoples lies in the strength
of their family groups."

Marriage and Family Life

939:6

"The mores (religious, moral, and ethical), together with property,
pride, and chivalry, stabilize the institutions of marriage and family.
Whenever the mores fluctuate, there is fluctuation in the stability of
the home-marriage institution."

Marriage and Family Life

940:2

"But the home as an institution, a partnership between one man
and one woman, dates more specifically from the days of Dalamatia, about
one-half million years ago, the monogamous practices of Andon and his immediate
descendants having been abandoned long before . . . . Adam and Eve exerted
a lasting influence on all mankind; for the first time in the history of
the world men and women were observed working side by side in the Garden."

Marriage and Family Life

941:5

"Family life has become more and more costly, while children,
who used to be an asset, have become economic liabilities. But the security
of civilization itself still rests on the growing willingness of one generation
to invest in the welfare of the next and future generations. And any attempt
to shift parental responsibility to state or church will prove suicidal
to the welfare and advancement of civilization."

Marriage and Family Life

941:6

"Marriage, with children and consequent family life, is stimulative
of the highest potentials in human nature and simultaneously provides the
ideal avenue for the expression of those quickened attributes of mortal
personality. The family provides for the biologic perpetuation of the human
species. The home is the natural arena wherein the ethics of blood brotherhood
may be grasped by the growing children. The family is the fundamental unit
of fraternity in which parents and children learn these lessons of patience,
altruism, tolerance, and forbearance which are so essential to the realization
of brotherhood among all men."

Marriage and Family Life

942:2

"Family life is the progenitor of true morality, the ancestor
of the consciousness of loyalty to duty. The enforced associations of family
life stabilize personality and stimulate its growth through the compulsion
of necessitous adjustment to other and diverse personalities. But even
more, a true family--a good family--reveals to the parental procreators
the attitude of the Creator to his children, while at the same time such
true parents portray to their children the first of a long series of ascending
dis- closures of the love of the Paradise parent of all universe children."

Marriage and Family Life

THE PLEASURE MANIA

942:3,
942:4,
942:5

"The great threat against family life is the menacing rising tide
of self- gratification, the modern pleasure mania. . . .It remains a fact
that the evolving mores have failed to build any distinct institution of
self- gratification. And it is due to this failure to evolve specialized
techniques of pleasurable enjoyment that all human institutions are so
completely shot through with this pleasure pursuit . . . The violet race
introduced a new and only imperfectly realized characteristic into the
experience of humankind--the play instinct coupled with the sense of humor.
It was there in measure in the Sangiks and Andonites, but the Adamic strain
elevated this primitive propensity into the potential of pleasure, a new
and glorified form of self-gratification. The basic type of self-gratification,
aside from appeasing hunger, is sex gratification, and this form of sensual
pleasure was enormously heightened by the blending of the Sangiks and the
Andites."

Marriage and Family Life

942:6

"There is real danger in the combination of restlessness, curiosity,
adventure, and pleasure-abandon characteristic of the post-Andite races.
The hunger of the soul cannot be satisfied with physical pleasures; the
love of home and children is not augmented by the unwise pursuit of pleasure."

Marriage and Family Life

2076:1

"Do not try to satisfy the curiosity or gratify all the latent
adventure surging within the soul in one short life in the flesh. Be patient!
Be not tempted to indulge in a lawless plunge into cheap and sordid adventure.
Harness your energies and bridle your passions; be calm while you await
the majestic unfolding of an endless career of progressive adventure and
thrilling discovery."

After Pentecost

943:2

"Man has well earned some of his present-day joys and pleasures.
But look you well to the goal of destiny! Pleasures are indeed suicidal
if they succeed in destroying property, which has become the institution
of self- maintenance; and self-gratifications have indeed cost a fatal
price if they bring about the collapse of marriage, the decadence of family
life, and the destruction of the home--man's supreme evolutionary acquirement
and civilization's only hope of survival."

Marriage and Family Life

1241:3

"The teaching about guardian angels is not a myth; certain groups
of human beings do actually have personal angels. It was in recognition
of this that Jesus, in speaking of the children of the heavenly kingdom,
said: 'Take heed that you despise not one of these little ones, for I say
to you, their angels do always behold the presence of the spirit of my
Father."'

Seraphic Guardians of Destiny

1256:
#7,9

In discussing the various groups of angels, the Chief of Seraphim points
out two groups which are helping the home. "7. The angels of enlightenment.
Urantia is now receiving the help of the third corps of seraphim dedicated
to the fostering of planetary education." The other group, "9.
The home seraphim. Urantia now enjoys the services of the fifth group of
angelic ministers dedicated to the preservation and advancement of the
home, the basic institution of human civilization."

Seraphic Planetary Government

1581:1

"The family occupied the very center of Jesus' philosophy of life--here
and \ hereafter. He based his teachings about God on the family, while
he sought to correct the Jewish tendency to over honor ancestors. He exalted
family life as the highest human duty but made it plain that family relationships
must not interfere with religious obligations. He called attention to the
fact that the family is a temporal institution; that it does not survive
death."

Ordination of the Twelve

1603:6

"Jesus said: "'The people of another age will better understand
the gospel of the kingdom when it is presented in terms expressive of the
family relation- ship--when man understands religion as the teaching of
the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, sonship with God.' Then
the Master discoursed at some length on the earthly family as an illustration
of the heavenly family, restating the two fundamental laws of living: the
first commandment of love for the father, the head of the family, and the
second commandment of mutual love among the children, to love your brother
as yourself. And then he explained that such a quality of brotherly affection
would invariably manifest itself in unselfish and loving social service."

Passover at Jerusalem

1604:

A true family is founded on the following seven facts (please see p.
1604 for expanded version):

The relationship of father and child is inherent in all nature.

True fathers take great pleasure in providing for the needs and pleasures
of their children.

Wise fathers carefully plan for education and training for children,
for later life.

The affectionate father builds intimate and loving companionship with
his children and builds loyalty.

A compassionate father is freely forgiving and loving. Real families
are built upon tolerance, patience, and forgiveness.

Temporal fathers like to provide for the future and leave an inheritance
for their sons.

1604:2

"For hours the Master discussed the application of these features
of family life to the relations of man, the earth child, to God, the Paradise
Father. This entire relationship,. . . I know in perfection,. . . in me
is the way now open still wider for all of you to see God."

Passover at Jerusalem

1839:5

"It is the divine will that men and women should find their highest
service and consequent joy in the establishment of homes for the reception
and training of children, in the creation of whom these parents become
copartners with the Makers of heaven and earth."

Visit to Philadelphia

1921:6,
7

See expanded version on pp. 1921-12 of John Mark's early home training.
"When the lad [John Mark] asked the Master how he could know that
he would turn out to be a 'mighty messenger of the kingdom,' Jesus said:
'I know you will prove loyal to the gospel of the kingdom because I can
depend upon your present faith and love when these qualities are grounded
upon such early training as has been your portion at home.' 'Your whole
afterlife will be more happy and dependable because you have spent your
first eight years in a normal and well-regulated home . . . where love
prevailed and wisdom reigned. Such a childhood training produces a type
of loyalty which assures me that you will go through with the course you
have begun."

Wednesday, the Rest Day

1922:5

"It is our sincere belief that the gospel of Jesus' teaching,
founded as it is on the father-child relationship, can hardly enjoy a world-wide
acceptance until such a time as the home life of the modern civilized peoples
embraces more of love and more of wisdom . . . it remains a fact that very
few modern homes are such good places in which to nurture boys and girls
as Jesus' home in Galilee and John Mark's home in Judea, albeit the acceptance
of Jesus' gospel will result in the immediate improvement of home life."

Wednesday, the Rest Day

1923:1

"The love life of a wise home and the loyal devotion of true religion
exert a profound reciprocal influence upon each other. Such a home life
enhances religion, and genuine religion always glorifies the home"

Wednesday, the Rest Day

IV. The Unique Role of the Earthly
Father

40:2

"As you ponder the loving nature of God, there is only one reasonable
and natural personality reaction thereto: You will increasingly love your
Maker; you will yield to God an affection analogous to that given by a
child to an earthly parent; for, as a father, a real father, a true father,
loves his children, so the Universal Father loves and forever seeks the
welfare of his created sons and daughters."

Nature of God

41:2-3

"Jesus revealed God as the Father of each human being. The entire
mortal concept of God is transcendently illuminated by the life of Jesus.
God loves not like a Father, but as a father,. . . love gives and craves
affection, seeks understanding fellowship such as exists between parent
and child. Righteousness may be the divine thought, but love is a father's
attitude."

Nature of God

933:6

"The stupendous change from the mother-family to the father-family
is one of the most radical and complete right-about-face adjustments ever
executed by the human race. This change led at once to greater social expression
and increased family adventure "

Marriage and Family Life

Earthly-Father Role of
Jesus

Of all the many examples given of the supreme importance of
the earthly- father role, none seems more significant than the fact that
our own Creator of the local universe, Michael of Nebadon, served as an
earthly father to Joseph's eight children, more than half of his entire
bestowal career on this earth.

1389:5

"For almost a score of years (until he began his public ministry)
no father could have loved and nurtured his daughter any more affectionately
and faith- fully than Jesus cared for little Ruth. And he was an equally
good father to all the other members of his family."

The Two Crucial Years

1419:1

"He continued, right up to the event of his baptism, to contribute
to the family finances and to take a keen personal interest in the spiritual
welfare of every one of his brothers and sisters. And always was he ready
to do everything humanly possible for the comfort and happiness of his
widowed mother."

The Later Adult Life of Jesus

1389:8,
1390:1

"Jesus rightly reasoned that the watchcare of his earthly father's
family must take precedence of all duties; that the support of his family
must become his first obligation."

The Two Crucial Years

1393:1

"Apparently all Jesus' plans for a career were thwarted . . .
. But he did not falter; he was not discouraged. He lived on, day by day,
doing well the present duty and faithfully discharging the immediate responsibilities
of his station in life. Jesus' life is the everlasting comfort of all dis-
appointed idealists."

The Two Crucial Years

1393:6

"And the rigorous experience of supporting his family was a sure
safeguard against his having overmuch time for idle meditation or the indulgence
of mystic tendencies."

The Two Crucial Years

1397:7

"The Zealots approached Jesus to join their group in rebelling
against the payment of taxes to Rome. Jesus was scarcely seventeen, when
he gave his famous reasons for refusal: That his first duty was to his
widowed mother and eight brothers and sisters who needed a father's watch
care and guidance. When Isaac offered to support the family if Jesus would
go, Jesus replied: 'No matter how much money was forthcoming for their
material support, making his never-to-be-forgotten statement that 'money
cannot love.' Everyone in Nazareth well knew he was a good father to his
family, and this was a matter so near the heart of every noble Jew."

The Adolescent Years

1573:2

"Every mortal really craves to be a complete person, to be perfect
even as the Father in heaven is perfect, and such attainment is possible
because in the last analysis the 'universe is truly fatherly,"'

"A father's love need not pamper, and it does not condone evil,
but it is always anticynical. Fatherly love has singleness of purpose,
and it always looks for the best in man; that is the attitude of a true
parent."

Ordination of the Twelve

1575:10

"Fatherly love delights in returning good for evil--doing good
in retaliation for injustice."

Ordination of the Twelve

1597:2

And Jesus said to Jacob, the wealthy Jewish trader from Crete: "And
now have I come in the flesh to reveal the Father in new glory and to show
forth his love and mercy to all men on all worlds." As the gospel
of this kingdom shall spread over the world . . . there will grow up improved
and better relations among the families of all nations. As time passes,
fathers and their children will love each other more, and thus will be
brought about a better understanding of the love of the Father in heaven
for his children on earth . . . a good and true father not only loves his
family as a whole-- as a family--but he also truly loves and affectionately
cares for each individual member."

Passover at Jerusalem

1597:3

"'Loving your children as a father on earth, you must now accept
as a reality the love of the heavenly Father for vou--not just for all
the children of Abraham, but for you, your individual soul."'

Passover at Jerusalem

1597:4,
1598:1

"'You should rejoice to enter the kingdom wherein such a merciful
Father rules, and you should seek to have his will of love dominate your
life henceforth.' And Jacob answered: 'Rabbi, I believe; I desire that
you lead me into the Father's kingdom."'

Passover at Jerusalem

1629:5

"Among other things, the Master said: 'You well know that, while
a kind- hearted father loves his family as a whole, he so regards them
as a group because of his strong affection for each individual member of
that family . . . . God loves you--every one of you--as individuals."'
Religion is thus a personal experience.

Eventful Days at Capernaum

1675:7,
1676:1

"'When children are young and unthinking, they must necessarily
be admonished to honor their parents; but when they grow older and become
somewhat more appreciative of the benefits of the parental ministry and
protection, they are led up, through understanding respect and increasing
affection, to that level of experience where they actually love their parents
for what they are more than for what they have done. The father naturally
loves his child, but the child must develop his love for the father from
the fear of what the father can do, through awe, dread, dependence and
reverence to the appreciative and affectionate regard of love."'

Second Preaching Tour

1922:4

"The family represents to the young child all that he can first
know of either human or divine relationships. The child must derive his
first impressions of the universe from the mother's care; he is wholly
dependent on the earthly father for his first ideas of the heavenly Father."

Wednesday, the Rest Day

1923:2

The liberty of modern homes "is not restrained by love, motivated
by loyalty, nor directed by the intelligent discipline of wisdom. As long
as we teach the child to pray, 'Our Father who is in heaven,' a tremendous
responsibility rests upon all earthly fathers so to live and order their
homes that the word father becomes worthily enshrined in the minds and
hearts of all growing children."

Wednesday, the Rest Day

2097:3

Consider that this magnificent revelation, this encyclopedia of information,
this greatest of all spiritual guides, ends with the Father concept: "The
Father is living love, and this life of the Father is in his Sons. And
the spirit of the Father is in his Son's sons--mortal men. When all is
said and done, the Father idea is still the highest human concept of God."

The Faith of Jesus

V. How Children Learn

There are so many references in The Urantia Book on each of several
motivations for learning that it was necessary to select only a few examples
for each of the seven found in our outline:

Recognition,

Socialization,

Repetition of new learning in varied experiences,

Play and humor,

Competition,

Learning by doing,

Reinforcement of learning by teaching those one step below.

(Note) In recent years there has been much opposition to the use of
rewards such as stars or prizes. In fact some principals have issued firm
directives against this practice feeling that this might make some children
feel superior to others. However, on the long ascension trail, ascenders
learn to face failure gracefully, a lesson that is sadly neglected in the
average school of today. Also, all along the universe path, recognition
of various types does reward achievement.

296:4

Socialization: The value of socialization in education and learning
is shown all the way up to Paradise starting with the lowest group of mortals.
"And the commingling of these manifold types provides the seraphic
complements of rest with a rich situational environment which they effectively
utilize in furthering the education of the ascending pilgrims, especially
with regard to the problems of adjustment to the many groups of beings
soon to be encountered on Paradise."

Ministering Spirits of the Central Universe

300:4

Socialization: "Ethical awareness is simply the recognition by
any individual of the rights inherent in the existence of any and all other
individuals."

Every new person our children meet adds one more level of ethics to
be recognized and complied with. And this is true all through the inward-ascending
career of mortals. And your child imparts something from his own experience
and personality to every child he meets so that every one is thus made
forever different and better for having associated with another.

549:4

Play and Humor: "The need for the relaxation and diversion of
humor is greatest in those orders of ascendant beings who are subjected
to sustained stress in their upward struggles."

The need for play and humor is emphasized through all The Urantia
Book teachings. Children should be trained in these two methods of
relaxation from an early age. It is sad to note that the present schoolrooms
do not consistently build and develop the sense of humor inherent in our
children. Instead, humor is often inhibited.

The Morontia Life

549:3

"When we are tempted to magnify our self-importance, if we stop
to contemplate the infinity of the greatness and grandeur of our Makers,
our own self- glorification becomes sublimely ridiculous, even verging
on the humorous. One of the functions of humor is to help all of us take
ourselves less seriously. Humor is the divine antidote for exaltation of
ego."

The Morontia Life

551:2,
3

Good and faithful Urantia parents can help their children avoid or
at least diminish some of the problems of the morontia career. Listen to
this: "Those things which you might have learned on earth, but which
you failed to learn, must be acquired . . ." in the morontia life.
"There are no royal roads, short cuts, or easy paths to Paradise."
The morontia career must: "effect the permanent eradication from the
mortal survivors of such animal vestigial traits as procrastination, equivocation,
insincerity, problem avoidance, unfairness, and ease seeking."

The Morontia Life

575:5

Competition: The early planetary "schools of culture and training
are well adapted to the needs of each planet, and there soon develops a
keen and laudatory rivalry among the races of men in their efforts to gain
entrance to these various institutions of learning."

The Planetary Princes

625:6

On the Spheres of Light and Life "[the children] are magnificently
trained by the competitive systems of keen striving in the advanced domains
and divisions of diverse achievement in the mastery of truth, beauty, and
goodness."

Spheres of Light and Life

625:6

Socialization: "On these superb worlds the childbearing period
is not greatly ly prolonged. It is not best for too many years to intervene
between the ages of a family of children. When close together in age, children
are able to contribute much more to their mutual training."

Spheres of Light and Life

812:4

Leaning by Doing: "There are no classrooms, only one study is
pursued at a time , . . . Books are used only to secure information that
will assist in solving the problems arising in the school shops and on
the school farms. Much of the furniture used on the continent and the many
mechanical contrivances--this is a great age of invention and mechanization--are
produced in these shops."

Leaning by Doing: This great motivation was used in training people
in the Garden, On a Neighboring Planet, in Jesus' home life and all through
the ascension career.

Government on a Neighboring Planet

342:2,
812:4

Reinforcement of Leaning: This method of immediately teaching those
just below you is used throughout the universe. "After the first three
years all pupils become assistant teachers, instructing those below them."

Government on a Neighboring Planet

835:6

Competition: "The forenoon periods of recess were devoted to practical
horticulture and agriculture, the afternoon periods to competitive play."

Adam and Eve

909:5

Educational Training: "Social inheritance enables man to stand
on the shoulders of all who have preceded him, and who have contributed
aught to the sum of culture and knowledge. In this work of passing on the
cultural torch to the next generation, the home will ever be the basic
institution . . . . The human baby is born without an education; therefore
man possesses the power, by controlling the educational training of the
younger generation, greatly to modify the evolutionary course of civilization."

(Note that this great power rests primarily in the home.)

Development of Modern Civilization

909:7

And how we need to use this book as a guide to help us improve the
home and rear the next generation, as we read on page 909: "Modern
civilization is at a standstill in spiritual development and the safeguarding
of the home institution."

Development of Modern Civilization

1355:2

Socialization: This method was used in Jesus' home training when he
was 2-3 years old, in Alexandria, Egypt. In the home where Jesus lived
there were "two other children about his age, and among the near neighbors
there were six others," so that Jesus learned to play with eight children
in that garden and home.

The Early Childhood of Jesus

1363:2

Socialization: "Jesus received his moral and spiritual culture
chiefly in his own home. He secured much of his intellectual and theological
education from the chazan. But his real education--that equipment of mind
and heart for the actual test of grappling with the difficult problems
of life--he obtained by mingling with his fellow men . . . . Jesus was
highly educated in that he thoroughly understood men and devotedly loved
them."

Early Childhood of Jesus

1364:3

ART: When he was about ten years old, "Jesus and the neighbor
boy Jacob became great friends of the potter who worked near the flowing
spring; and as they watched Nathan's deft fingers mold the clay on the
potter's wheel, many times both of them determined to be potters when they
grew up. Nathan was very fond of the lads and often gave them clay to play
with, seeking to stimulate their creative imaginations by suggesting competitive
efforts in modeling various objects and animals."

Early Childhood of Jesus

1364:8

MUSIC: In Jesus' eighth year (A.D. 2) "[he] made arrangements
to exchange dairy products for lessons on the harp. He had an unusual liking
for everything musical. Later on he did much to promote an interest in
vocal music among his youthful associates. By the time he was eleven years
of age, he was a skillful harpist and greatly enjoyed entertaining both
family and friends with his extraordinary interpretations and able improvisations."

Early Childhood of Jesus

1366:4

"Jesus delighted in drawing landscapes as well as in modeling
a great variety of objects in potter's clay. Everything of that sort was
strictly forbidden by Jewish law, but up to this time he had managed to
disarm his parents' objection to such an extent that they had permitted
him to continue in these activities." However, after a scene at school
when the elders called on his parents, Joseph felt constrained to rule
that Jesus could not draw or model. Jesus obeyed as long as he lived in
his father's house but it was one of the great trials of his young life.

The Later Childhood of Jesus

1364:3-5

Leaning by Doing: "Before he was eight years of age, . . . Jesus
learned to milk the family cow and care for the other animals. During this
and the following year he also learned to make cheese and to weave. When
he was ten years of age, he was an expert loom operator." During his
eighth year (A.D. 2) Jesus began to spend a week or more on his uncle's
farm five miles south of